Otto Wernicke

Biography

Otto Wernicke was a German actor whose career spanned the late silent era and the 1950s. He is best remembered for playing police inspector Karl Lohmann in M and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, both directed by Fritz Lang, two landmark titles of early 1930s German crime cinema.

Born in Osterode am Harz in 1893, he worked steadily in German dramas, comedies and adventure films. Because he was married to a Jewish woman, he could only keep working under the Nazi regime thanks to a special exemption from the Reich Chamber of Culture. In 1943 he played Captain Edward J. Smith in Titanic, an early version that mixed fictional characters and subplots with the real sinking, a formula later repeated in many adaptations. Soon afterwards he was placed on the Gottbegnadeten-Liste, a list of artists regarded as essential to Nazi culture, and he appeared in the propaganda epic Kolberg (1945).

After the war he continued in German films, taking supporting roles such as in The Captain from Köpenick (1956). His legacy rests largely on the policemen he played in Lang's work, figures still mentioned when people discuss Weimar-era cinema.

Key films

• M (1931), directed by Fritz Lang: Inspector Karl Lohmann, the role he is best remembered for.
• The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), directed by Fritz Lang: he returns as Inspector Lohmann.
• Titanic (1943), directed by Herbert Selpin and Werner Klingler: Captain Edward J. Smith, in one of the earliest versions of the sinking with fictional subplots.
• Kolberg (1945), directed by Veit Harlan: a part in the large-scale Nazi propaganda production.
• The Captain from Köpenick (1956), directed by Helmut Käutner: a supporting role in the postwar period.